The use of surge protectors for protecting the telephone lines coming into a modem are common. In a typical prior art scenario, the surge protection circuitry is located inside of the modem or electronic device itself. This type of design however usually requires the use of tools or special equipment in order to access the surge protection circuitry if it becomes damaged. This makes the maintenance of the modem more cumbersome and time consuming.
A further problem with prior art surge protectors is that no determination of the operability of the surge protector is made by the electronic device connected to the surge protector in order to determine if the surge protector is damaged. Typically, only when the electronic device is no longer operational, such as when a modem user fails to communicate using the modem, will the user realize that the surge protection circuit might be the cause of the problem. A need thus exists in the art for a surge protection circuit and an electronic device which uses such a module which can overcome the problems associated with the prior art surge protection designs mentioned above.